South Side High School was recently ranked fifth in New York State and 143rd in the country in the Washington Post’s annual list of the most challenging high schools in America.
South Side’s index score of 4.714 was good enough for fourth on Long Island, behind No. 2 Jericho (5.635), No. 3 Manhasset (5.406) and No. 4 Locust Valley (4.893).
The top ranked school in the state was City Honors in Buffalo, with an index score of 9.950.
The index ranks more than 1,900 public school nationwide.
The rankings take into account the following:
    The index score is the number of college-level tests given at a school in 2012 divided by the number of graduates that year. Also noted are the percentage of students who come from families that qualify for lunch subsidies (Subs. lunch) and the percentage of graduates who passed at least one college-level test during their high school career, called equity and excellence, (E&E). A (P) next to the school's name denotes a private school.
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